Thursday, 25 December 2014

The Islamic state within a state—can it happen!

If one was
to ask ‘what makes headlines for New Zealand?’ The obvious answer
would be world class cricket team and the rugby players who mesmerize the
crowds with their haka dance at the beginning of every match. But Te Amorangi
Kireka-Whaanga has other ideas to boost the image of the egalitarian country
well-known for its wealth of natural and scenic landscapes. The young man who
heads the Aotearoa Maori Muslim Association mentioned in a recent Facebook post
that he has changed the organisation’s name to the Islamic State of Aotearoa.

Considering
the violent reputation of the Islamic State in Middle East,
one would imagine refraining from being considered as an ideologue of what the
state proposes as common sense. But Kireka-Whaanga remains sympathetic towards
the ISIS which conducts massacres and
beheading of hostages. ‘IF you practice your religion then of course you’ll be
100 per cent behind Islamic State,’ he said while also claiming that he was not
a violent person. His bizarrely warped claims include maintaining a desire to
be ‘a peace advocate trying to achieve my goal of winning a Nobel peace prize.’

Mr
Kireka-Whaanga is one more ‘lone wolf’ eager to Islamicize the community and
society because somehow the principal of Western society are falling short of
providing justice and peace to the world. This perception eagerly grasps the young
men and women who are led to believe by the jihad-seeking religious teachers
and community leaders that assimilation and integration is threatening the
cohesion of Islamic values. The propagation to adopt religious principles which
are largely alien to European values is now giving rise to ideas of new nations
with hopes to supersede Christian nations. Across Germany,
France and England the
population of conservative Muslims are encouraging ethnic/religious separatism
which in other terms means benefiting from immigrating without having to
assimilate into society. The rise of unemployment and violence cannot be overlooked.
Some level of violence has the advantage of ensuring separation from the
outside world and can be used as a bargaining tool with the authorities to get
more de facto autonomy—meaning that Muslim enclaves are ruled only by Muslims according to Islamic
law—as well as to obtain more funding.
This kind of attitude also serves as a social control tool against
liberal-minded Muslim individuals, for conservative Muslim leaders can easier
exert pressure on liberal-minded Muslims—for instance to compel females to don the veil.

Most
incentives seeking government control over Muslims through establishment of
organizations fail because orthodox Muslims see autonomy of religion as in
direct opposition of what Sharia law states. The separation between the state
and the religion overwhelmingly accepted by the European countries has not been
accepted by the supporters of the Sharia law, who argue that religion is
intrinsically interwoven with the affairs of the state.

In UK the growing concern and dismay
about the rise of Islam is now brushed aside as racism and the sense of victim
hood decapitate the purpose to examine the underlying intrinsic issues.
Nevertheless it will become necessary to enforce the law of the state in a wise
and gentle way to avoid a state within a state scenario.

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About Me

@mssolidarity is Salima Yakoob. She has written on extremism, war on terror and
international politics. Many times she stands corrected but refuses to bow down
to religious apologists and moderates with no agendas. Her degree in English
proved beneficial in understanding the several isms.

If @mssolidarity is not writing she is doing
school runs, reading books of all sorts and listening to London Grammar on her
ipod.

Her posts
can be sometimes off-track and overly imaginative, but you should forgive her. She
is only a writer.